Okay, explanation time.

IIRC = If I Remember Correctly acronyms are quite handy for saveing time and bandwidth...if you don't know what a particular acronym means then do what you just did..ask. Then you get to learn something new :o)

To be slightly pedantic the above are not acronyms but abbreviations. An acronym ( or an initialism) is an abbreviation that forms a pronouncible word, good examples would be Radar, Laser etc.

Here you go,

all the most commonly used abbreviations ATM. Most date back to the days of BBS's etc, and some are older still.

Mark

IMO, this bloke asks more questions than Parky, Paxman and Humphries combined.

IIRC, I've posted several times that he is just a troll..... (His next question will be "what's a troll?...")

BTW, don't like your layout, it's much too symmetrical - as is most of Freezer's stuff.

Cheers Robt P.

If it helps, I don't know what IIRC means either, and I figure if you want to hide the meaning then I don't care. I really don't seem to be missing anything by not knowing. I did bother to look it up once and it was of so little import that if I remember correctly I promptly forgot it.

Regards, Greg.P.

60106 wrote:

"If I recall correctly". Ancient Net lingo. Not that big a deal really. It isn't hiding, it is to make the post smaller, and harks back to the days when BBS's roamed the Earth. Ah, Fidonet. Most of the people who use these terms, just do it out of habbit. In my case, it's just alot quicker to type IMHO (in my humble opinion;-).

If I recall correctly, IIRC means "If I Recall Correctly."

IOW = In Other Words FWIW = for what it's worth YMMV = your mileage may vary (your results may differ) GIGO = Garbage in - garbage out ISTM = It Seems To Me SWMBO = She Who Must Be Obeyed. The Mrs., the wife (Horace Rumpole's favourite name for Hilda) From H. Ryder Haggard's novel "She" Ayesha, the Queen of Death.

Can't think of any others at the moment, but there are some lesser used ones. Others will fill them in I'm sure.

It all goes waaaaay back to the very earliest days of communicating this way through bulletin boards and very slow servers and modems, and having to pay by the byte for service. It is a kind of shorthand, that's all. Not meant to confuse or frustrate anyone. If you see one that you can't decipher, just ask. Someone will fill it in for you. Pretty soon you'll find yourself using them also.

Thanks to all who replied. Including 60106 although I haven't seen any of your posts indicating that I'm a troll.

As I have previously said, I am trying to learn, therefore being on a steep learning curve requires asking questions and hoping to utilise the experience of others, thus saving time and money. I thought that was one of the reasons for this group. If you do not want to help, no problem, you do not need to answer. On the rare occasion that I have been able offer something to a thread I have offered my opinion as I believe or understand it.

After rereading my original post my apologies for the tone, fuelled by a few beers I am afraid.

Oh well, I'm off to hide under my bridge now (alledgedly) and await the first Billy Goat Gruff to cross.

Eddie.

"Eddie Bray" wrote

Another very good way to get confused by these abbreviations is to give your teenage children mobile phones and then invite them to txt you. I have just been to that site Mark posted (Thanks Mark) and now I understand a few more of the things the kids tell me...

Elliott

In message , snipped-for-privacy@noisp.com writes

LOL - Laugh out loud ROFL - Roll on the floor laughing ROFLMAO - Roll on the floor laughing my arse off ITYWF - I think you will find IANAL - I am not a lawyer IMHO - In my humble opinion IMNSHO - In my not-so-humble opinion FOAD - (expletive deleted, meaning Go away) RTFM - Read the (expletive deleted) manual HTH - Hope this/that helps

I actually heard a presenter on Radio Five Live use it while he was interviewing someone - he actually pronounced the initials :-)

Jim.

ISTM that any discursion into language, message-format & protocols or, best of all, hardware, leads to far longer and more involved discussion and debate than the original posting might... Having said that, I find the various net forums (fora?) and E-mail a wonderful way of obtaining and disseminating information, though I do find actual time spent modelling diminishes- mind you, that might be because there's a radiator in the room with the computer..... IMHO, naturellment.... Brian ps, as someone who lurks on, and occassionally contributes to, some French railway groups, I notice that they often use the Anglophone acronyms/abbreviations

In message , Eddie Bray writes

Although not true acronyms - rather a short form of expressing a general term or short phrase, such posters are either geriatric and lazy, have difficulty typing, or are new to Usenet and have the need to show off. Bulletin boards will undoubtedly be mentioned and [lord forbid] the subject of Micronet, Viewdata and ancient long defunct software might even raise its head.

Nothing of any importance is ever indicated by this mainly ostentatious nonsense which like spam is best ignored. One of the hangovers of times past. Like Amateur radio, where this type of short form communication is still actually spoken [often with reverence by those of a certain age and mentality] it will eventually die out with the generation that spawned it.

The average poster imparting information in this group has a great deal more sense than to hide any meaningful content in such a way, so its use has very little real effect. In any case spending valuable free time voicing concern about such a matter is wasted time which could be much better constructively spent working in the layout :0)

Cheers.

"Roy" wrote

Only to be replaced by something even more bizarrely inexplicable...

(with due apologies to the late Douglas Adams for this misuse of his quote)

Jane Sullivan said the following on 21/02/2006 08:35:

...or even PMSLMAO, which I have seen. Usually just abbreviated to PMSL...

naturellement!

Unfortunately, the use of shortform has been with since the invention of morse and probably existed in flag semaphore days. Like you, having been away in work land for some decades, it takes real time and effort to keep up with the jargon. During my life someone changed all the words in audio and in computers and even in Nuclear Engineering leaving me with similar feelings to yourself. I felt that the fellow who wa so rude in his reply ought to go off to bed early. (with no train set).

Peter A Montarlot

Now I've learned what some of these initials mean. The classic shortform abbrieviation of the past must belong to officers of the watch in Royal Navy ships during the war. They would search through the Bible for apt quotations and then simply send the signal like "Genisis xvi". The receiver would then delve through his copy of the Bible and decipher the context. Guess it passed away the hours!!

peter abraham wrote: